


Mayday, Mayday

by Orianess



Category: MacGyver (TV 2016)
Genre: Angst, Drowning, Impalement, Jack Dalton!whump, M/M, Near Death Experience, No Character Death, Plane Crash, Warning: this product may produce copious amounts of leakage from tear ducts, rescue breathing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-09
Updated: 2019-12-09
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:48:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,476
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21727030
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Orianess/pseuds/Orianess
Summary: “Control this is flight 4-Xray281, we’ve lost an engine due to lightening strike!” Jack relays and the controller reports back instantly.“Go ahead X-ray, you need emergency landing, give me your coordinates.”“Mayday mayday Control! We’re not gonna make a runway, we’re diving hard, water landing imminent, copy? Water landing imminent!”—Mac and Jack survive a plane crash and then have to survive the sinking wreckage. The odds are stacked against them, can they find the will to survive?
Relationships: Jack Dalton/Angus MacGyver (MacGyver TV 2016)
Comments: 30
Kudos: 98





	Mayday, Mayday

**Author's Note:**

  * For [impossiblepluto](https://archiveofourown.org/users/impossiblepluto/gifts).



> Dearest impossiblepluto, this one is the Christmas gift I’m having to substitute in place of the original story I wanted to do for you. I will still be doing the other one, but it’s going to have to incubate a while longer. 😉 I hope you still enjoy it anyway!
> 
> All mistakes are mine, many thanks to KatieComma for helping me with quality control. This is vaguely set in season 2 if you need a mental timeline.
> 
> Enjoy!

Lightning flashes around them turning the inside of Jack’s brain white for a moment while his pilot’s chair shudders at the force of it.

“How you doin’, buddy?” Jack calls back to his partner over the roar of the plane engine and he hears the vague sound of Mac coughing as he struggles in the grip of airsickness. Neither one of them is prone to motion sickness but the severe turbulence they’re hitting due to the storm around them is pretty serious and Jack winces in sympathy as Mac groans loudly behind the cockpit.

“M’fine.” Mac grunts and Jack’s about to remind him to breathe in counts of ten and out on twenty when another thundering bout of wind rattles the plane in terrifying ferocity.

“Hang in there, Mac. We should be past the worst of the storm soon.” Jack promises, keeps his eyes on the gages even as he guides the plane to a slightly higher altitude. The radio chatters at him and he hears a commercial flight in their area report harder header winds and heavy electrical activity. Another jarring wave of turbulence shudders the plane around them and viciously vibrates the steering yoke in his hands.

He wishes he could help Mac more but he hasn’t been very up to date on his flying skills and he needs to focus the majority of his attention on piloting the little prop plane as steadily as he can, more so knowing that they’re above the open water of the Gulf of Mexico. Flying through a storm isn’t ideal but he’s done it before and they’re in the home stretch now, about two and a half hours in the journey from Havana to Texas. They’re transporting some important scientific equipment, Mac seemed pretty excited about it at least, and it was a time sensitive mission. It was also a very stressful mission, especially given that Jack wasn’t supposed to be the one flying them originally. They’re definitely hitting a bar after this, he’s going to need a couple whiskeys to soothe his frayed nerves.

Mac groans again, the sound clear thanks to the two way radio headset he’s wearing. “This sucks.” He grumbles and Jack snorts.

“You wanna trade jobs? I’ll keep an eye on the science toy and you can guide us through this lovely weather we’re having.” Jack deadpans and Mac makes a distinct gagging sound.

The instruments in front of them report his coordinates and he smiles a little, his nervousness fading back by an inch. They’re just about at final approach and he starts dipping the nose of the plane for descent, the gray-green oasis of rain covered land is visible just through the cloud cover haze.

“Good news dude, land is in sight. I’m gonna radio in for the first runway we can get.” Jack promises and Mac’s noncommittal hum is the only answer he gets.

Jack’s just turned the dial of the receiver and found the closest air traffic control when a deafening sound blasts around them. The entire plane jumps, jerks and sways and Jack’s vaguely aware of Mac’s startled yell even as the controls in front of him go wild.

“Jack! We’re hit!” Mac yells and Jack curses under his breath. The altimeter is spinning and the wailing of alarms fill the cabin.

“Lightning strike!” Jack shouts back. “Mac! Buckle up! This is gonna be bad!”

Jack glances and sees the left engine is reporting failure. He starts working on trying to prime it back to life even as he forces his radio call in on the present chatter of traffic control. 

“Control this is flight 4-Xray281, we’ve lost an engine due to lightening strike!” Jack relays and the controller reports back instantly.

“Go ahead X-ray, you need emergency landing, give me your coordinates.”

Jack reports them back and shouts when the nose starts dipping hard, gravity and wind dragging them in without mercy. They’re going down. “Mayday mayday Control. We’re not gonna make a runway, we’re diving hard, water landing imminent, copy? Water landing imminent!”

“Jack!” Mac screams as their interia pulls them down faster to the point that the entirety of the hull around them seems to moan.

Jack puts all his knowledge to use, switching to manual guide, pulling the flaps and forces the yolk up as hard as he can. They’ll still make impact but hopefully he can slow them just enough to keep them from being shredded apart by the collision to come. His stomach heaves as the definition of the choppy waters below becomes clearer as they speed toward it.

Seconds till impact, the control technician starts trying to get additional information from him but it’s too late for any of that. The wind and the rain and the lightning is everywhere as they rush toward the ground with ever gaining force. Jack radios back one last time with his current coordinates , “Mayday Mayday Control, we’re coming down!”

The impact of water blasts them to an abrupt stop and the shuddering groans of metal drown out the sounds of their screams.

It takes Jack a minute to blink himself back to awareness and his skull burns like fire. He shakes himself and immediately remembers what, how and why. The front windows are cracked and the storm-chopping waters of the Gulf lap at them insistently as they bob wildly in the waves. They’ve not taken in any water yet but they can’t afford to wait. They have to get out, now!

“Mac!” He yells and unclips himself from his safety harness and turns in his seat, yanking the headset off as he goes. He looks and Mac is slumped unconscious in his seat, a cut at his temple that has leaked blood all over his face and shoulder. The scientific machine, the likely culprit of Mac’s unconsciousness, is in pieces at the back of the plane, shattered all over from the landing. 

Jack staggers as the plane rocks with the waves around them, but he manages to steady himself just enough to stumble closer to Mac. Mac’s breathing is stable but he doesn’t get the chance to rouse him.

Like a bath toy with an overzealous kid, the waves yank the plane up and hurl it end over end and Jack is yanked upward with its force. He doesn’t even have time to scream when he sees out the window the swell of another wave ready to batter them into a thousand pieces. The wave strikes the side of the plane and, with the most sickening sense of falling and rising, Jack is sent tumbling again before he falls into unconsciousness from the blow.

—

It’s Mac’s scream of his name that pulls him from the unknowing blackness and it takes him several slow breaths before he gets enough adrenaline flowing through him to make a cognizant response.

“...hear ya...” he grunts, eyes still closed against the raging headache he has, and Mac’s voice floats indistinctly above him somewhere. That’s odd. Why is Mac above...?

He forces himself to look, eyes unfocused and dim as he manages to look. Mac’s still in his seat harness, trying to get free, but he’s suspended above Jack. Jack glances around and realizes the plane isn’t moving anymore but the water outside is still pounding the hull. He looks down at himself, sees the instrumentation that they had been transporting had fallen all over him when the water rolled them and was pinning him firmly to the wall with a couple hundred pounds of metal. He groans as he tries to shift to see how badly he’s stuck and Mac’s voice calls down to him.

“Jack, don’t move! I’m gonna come down to you.” 

Jack feels like the weight of the machine on top of him is plenty deterrent against that so he doesn’t argue with him. “Be careful Mac.”

Mac fights his way free of the harness after a minute and, with some very impressive monkey skills, climbs down the wall till he can jump down to him. As soon as he’s beside Jack, Mac settles a hand on the exposed shoulder while the other flutters nervously over the metal all over Jack, clearly trying to figure out where to start.

“How do you feel? Are you hurt anywhere?” Mac asks, voice shaken a bit as he looks around them when the water sloshes the plane sideways a little.

Jack shakes his head, even as the world tilts dizzily. “Don’t think so. Maybe a concussion but I don’t feel hurt… You’re okay?”

Mac huffs softly, hands carefully beginning to pry away the metal on top of him. “I’m fine. Don’t move yet, I’m gonna get this stuff off you. We need to get out of here ASAP. This thing could start taking in water anytime now.”

Jack nods and looks around the plane, assessing how hard it’s going to be to climb back to the tail end where the large hatch door is. From what Jack can tell, the plane is nose down, possibly wedged into a sandbar, and the rocking he can feel around them is from the waves hitting the tail at the top end. The fact that this little puddle jumper aircraft endured this crash in one piece is beyond miraculous, but Mac’s right, it won’t stay water free much longer.

Mac is fighting moving the heavier pieces of the now busted machine they were hauling, but when he goes to pull away the next piece white hot pain explodes through Jack’s gut and he can’t stop the scream that rushes out of him.

“What? What is it?” Mac yelps, hands startled away from their task as Jack begins to pant for breath around the agony below his ribs on the left.

“Somethin’... there’s something wrong…” he gasps, his hand shaking as he tries to worm them down to where he felt the pain. Jack manages to get one hand down between the metal and a cold flush of fear rushes down his spine. There’s something rammed into his gut, inside him, and when he reaches back he can feel that there is a piece of sharp metal stuck through his back and connecting him to the wall.

“Fuck…” he hisses, head dropping back against the wall behind him. “I’m skewered.”

“What?” Mac gasps, “here let me…” he leans over Jack to peer down through the twisted metal and the way he goes still above Jack tells him everything he needs to know. Mac sits back and the abject horror in his face makes him look terribly young.

They stare at each other for a count of ten seconds before Mac shakes himself and adopts a look of steeled determination. 

“Okay here’s what we’re going to do. You’re going to stay still and I’m going to go check the radio and see if it’s still working. After that I’m going to remove as much of the metal as possible and then we’re going to wait for help before we get you off the wall.”

“Mac you can’t-“

“Listen, the metal is keeping you from bleeding out so if we don’t move you, you’ll be fine.”

“Yes but-“

“And help should already be on it’s way assuming they got your last transmission.”

“Right but-“

“So we just have to stay put and be ready to move when they get here.”

“Mac!”

“What?”

Jack sighs, “Mac, I get what you’re saying but you may not be able to wait long enough for help to get here and-“

“Help will come.” Mac snaps, voice hard with no room for dispute as he pulls himself to his feet and leans down for the cockpit radio behind Jack. “Help is coming. Just stay still. I’ll get you out of this, okay?”

Jack doesn’t argue with him because he can tell Mac is in full on survival mode and he won’t be discussing alternatives. Which is just as well, because thanks to being a human shish-kabob he can’t exactly do anything about the current situation except wait. He can vaguely hear the static of the radio as Mac fiddles with it but the groaning of the water-tossed hull drowns out anything that comes back through the feed.

He closes his eyes to wait, counts his breaths in measured steps and tries to keep himself from focusing on the wound throbbing in his side. Somewhere in the middle of counting backward from a hundred, he realizes he can smell something familiar and when he sees what it is, all attempts to hold back the panic fall away.

“Mac!”

Mac must hear the dread in his voice because instead of calling back he scrambles up from the cockpit and when he’s beside Jack, his eyes go right to the source of the trouble.

A steady waterfall of salt water is pouring in from a side panel above them, not too heavily, but steady enough to be a problem. At the same time they’re staring at the water, the auxiliary power shuts off around them and plunges them into near total darkness. 

It sort of hammers in the terror of what’s happening, the literal meaning of a bad to worse scenario: them being alone in the dark, the trickling sound of water a countdown to the inevitable end that’s coming.

“Damnit!” Mac growls and starts shimming his way up the wall to the seat he was in earlier and Jack watches him, perplexed for what Mac is planning to do. 

Not without some considerable effort, Mac manages to get up to the panel that’s leaking, standing on the back of his previous seat to reach it. He yanks his shirt off and stuffs it into the crevice to slow the leak before he leans over to reach under the seat, muttering to himself. After an impossibly long few seconds, Mac makes the climb back down with a medium sized plastic box under one arm, panting when he kneels down beside Jack.

“What you got, Mac?” Jack manages to ask and Mac hums an irritated sound as he cracks the box open, searching through the contents with shaking hands.

“Emergency kit.”

Jack watches him search, pulling item after item and tossing it aside, and sighs, “don’t suppose there’s a get outta jail free card in there?”

Mac frowns at him but pulls out a glow stick that he makes quick work of snapping and shaking to life, the green glow illuminating their faces. He digs out five more and snaps them all on, before he tosses the box aside. He then looks up at the door about ten feet above their heads and Jack can almost see the calculations racing through his mind. 

Jack knows Mac well enough to see that he’s not going to give up on finding a solution to get them both out of here. And while Jack isn’t the best mathematician he knows when the odds are not in his favor, he can see how bad this is, can feel down to his bones that this is it for him.

But the odds don’t have to be against Mac and it’s his job to convince him to better his odds by cutting the dead weight of a lost cause.

“Mac listen to me...”

“Stop, just let me think.”

“Mac you need to get out of here. You gotta get topside. Grab something that floats and hang on.”

“And what do you propose I do with you while I find floating things to hang onto? I can’t swim with you while you’re bleeding out.”

“Mac... you’d go without me.”

Mac is silent for a long few heartbeats and his face is as unforgiving as the thunder clouds that brought them down before he bites out the words, “Shut up. Stop talking if you’re not going be helpful.”

“Mac you-“

“No damnit!” Mac snarls. “I’m not leaving you so drop it. Just be quiet and let me think.”

Jack watches Mac in his silent reverie, tries to think of how he can make him see the futility of trying to rescue him. But Mac has other ideas.

Mac moves to the panel closest to them and flicks out his pocket knife, prying away the plastic cover to reveal a wall of wires and tubing. Jack watches him work for a moment before he asks gently, “What are you thinkin’, Mac?”

The blonde grunts as he works his arm down in between the wall and the hull, “I’m looking for the oxygen line.”

“The power’s not on, Mac.” Jack reminds him but Mac shakes his head.

“I know that. I don’t-“ 

Mac doesn’t get to finish whatever crazy plan he’s come up with, right then another wave must slam against the tail because they’re both sent lurching sideways and Jack can’t help but scream again as the metal through him moves with the impact.

When Jack manages to open his eyes again, Mac is beside him, trying to quickly pull the remaining metal pieces off of him, to keep him from getting jarred again.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” Mac mutters as he pulls pieces off as fast as he can. “Such an idiot, I should’ve done this first. I’m sorry.”

Jack has to suck in a breath through clenched teeth and he grabs Mac’s wrist as he leans in again. “Angus MacGyver stop and listen to me!”

Those blue eyes are only inches away and filled with wild panic as Jack takes his face between his hands.

“You are wasting time getting to safety because you think you can save me but you can’t!”

“I can!” Mac argues and Jack shakes him just a bit, biting back a groan of pain when the metal vibrates from another wave.

“No! Stop. Right now. Mac, you can’t win on this one, okay? It’s not your fault. But you and I both know even if help arrived in the next two minutes, they’re not gonna be able to save me from this! They’d never get me to a hospital in time.”

He points down at his side and Mac looks broken by the idea of accepting what Jack is saying, like he always knew this was the real issue but just didn’t want to say it.

The plane rocks violently again and this time the panel above them begins to leak water at a much more serious rate. Mac stares up at it in ever growing desperation and when he looks back to Jack, Jack can see the understanding in his eyes.

“Mac, time’s up, okay? You did your best, and I appreciate it, but we’re out of time.” Jack tells him gently and Mac visibly shakes at those words, eyes closing briefly as if he could deny this awful truth by simply not seeing it.

“No, I can’t do it... I can’t leave.” Mac whispers in agony, and Jack wonders if he should say it now, the truth he’s never given voice for fear of Mac’s reaction. Would a Hail Mary “I love you” be enough motivation to get Mac to listen, to send him away to safety? But he doesn’t know if he can do that, if he can burden his beloved Mac with that knowledge only to die in front of him. Mac has given him so much over the years, a purpose, a drive to live, an appreciation of life itself and he wants to tell him that but not at the cost of hurting him more than he already will.

“Angus, please…” Jack begs, pausing as he feels water starting to collect around his hip and he sees the terror in Mac as he notices it too. He squeezes the back of Mac’s neck to draw his eyes back to him and says in a thick voice, “don’t make the last thing I see is you drownin’ because you wouldn’t let me go. Don’t do that to me, okay? I need you to go. Please, Mac?”

Mac is shaking so hard under Jack’s hands he can hear his teeth chatter but his sad fierce eyes are unwaveringly steady. “You wouldn’t leave me. I’m staying.”

Jack’s eyes slip closed on their own and he can feel tears he didn’t want to shed spring up and fall down his cheeks. Sweet, fearless, MacGyver and his stubborn heart of gold. “Goddamnit Mac…”

He drags Mac in so that they’re touching foreheads and cradles the back of Mac’s head, wishes he could do more than that, wishes to say the real words he wants to say but now's not the time. He just hopes that when the water over takes him, Mac’s survival senses trump his moral code and he makes it out in time.

Mac disengages from him and resumes carefully removing the rest of the debris from Jack’s trapped torso, Jack assumes mostly to have something to keep his hands busy. When he’s down to just the last piece, he examines the place where Jack is impaled and frowns at it like it’s a particularly difficult math problem, not impossible to solve, just tricky. Jack is too busy noting the way the water is now covering his legs and he’s ready to start begging his partner to leave when Mac gets that look, the brilliant but feral light bulb look.

“I think…” Mac huffs, stands over Jack and his new extension of himself. “I think the metal isn't too deep into the wall. If I pull on the pole from behind your back I might be able to get it free from the wall. If we keep it in, you’ll be okay. It’ll be tricky but I can probably keep you afloat.”

“Mac…” Jack hates that his young partner is torturing himself this way but Mac shakes his head, ending the argument before it starts.

“Jack, what do we have to lose? Would you rather just wait to drown or try to get out of here? Just let me try. Please?” Mac pleads softly and Jack doesn’t think he could ever deny him anything when he asks like that.

Jack takes a breath and nods shakily, trying to brace himself for the pain that’s coming. The water is now lapping at the place the pole meets his back and it stings where the saltwater touches the edge of the wound. Mac hovers over him and wraps his arms around Jack like he’s going in for a hug and Jack holds his breath.

The minute Mac starts moving the pole Jack is on fire instantly. He can feel the minute vibrations of Mac’s effort to dislodge the item, hears Mac huffing like an air compressor next to his ear as he uses all of his power to pull. The metal doesn’t budge forward, only side to side, and it feels like a serrated blade sliding back and forth under his ribs, shredding him to pieces.

Jack can only bear it for so long before he taps at Mac’s thigh urgently and sobs out a plea for him to stop. “Mac stop… please no … no more please…” he doesn’t bother holding back his cries of pain because he knows Mac won’t judge him for it but he wishes he could hold it in because Mac’s expression is torn completely in half by guilt and despair.

“I’m sorry, Jack…” he whispers forlornly and Jack grips the hand Mac offers him for comfort because he needs something to hold on to.

“S’okay, I know… You had... to try.” He grunts between labored shallow breaths and Mac is watching him struggle with unspeakable sadness. There’s a roaring metallic groan around them and the leaking panel above them breaks in as a rush of water rockets in behind it. Jack shakes Mac’s shoulder lightly, he doesn’t have the energy for more, and points up. “Time’s up… go please…”

Mac grips Jack’s hand when he tries to pull back and shakes his head just once, the conviction in his expression is unmistakable. “No. You kaboom, I kaboom, right? I’m not going anywhere.”

The water is rising fast now with the added spray from above, the cold creeping up Jack’s torso like the unwavering hands of death. Mac is submerged to his waist from where he kneels beside Jack, eyes frightened but unmoving from Jack. The water crawls up steadily, to his chest, then his neck, hovering right under his ears and Jack wishes he could say something appropriate, a goodbye or something, and the always desired I love you hangs on his tongue begging permission to fly but he doesn’t say anything, just focuses on staying calm as the water covers his ears with a rush of white noise. He tips his head up and sucks in his final breath before the water closes in over his nose. Mac is still with him when he opens his eyes in the stinging salt water, illuminated almost peacefully by the green glow sticks floating around them. If this is the last thing he gets to see, he’s grateful it’s the one person in his life he never wanted to live without.

Jack tries to let the air out slow but his heart races as he knows this is it. He squeezes Mac’s hand and closes his eyes tightly, tries to prepare himself for the incoming burn of inhaling water, wishes like hell Mac would leave so that he doesn’t see the way the light will fade from Jack’s eyes when it happens. Mac’s a soldier, he’s seen it before, but Jack never wanted Mac to see him die so up close and personal.

He feels a small shift in the water around him before the hand in his disappears and he hopes that it’s Mac leaving so that he can succumb to his fate in private. He opens his eyes to check just in time to see Mac leaning in before lips are pressed against his firmly and a small stream of warm life bringing air rushes in. Mac pulls back and Jack stares at him in wonder before Mac kicks up toward the surface. When he returns, he leans in and repeats the gesture, gives a longer stream of air and the burning need in Jack’s lungs abate in tiny steps.

Mac signals to Jack by tapping his wrist two times. Count the time. He holds up six fingers then a circle. Sixty seconds. Jack nods and watches Mac disappear toward the surface and counts as he lets the air out slowly. Right around fifty five seconds, Mac drifts back down to him and leans in and gives Jack another bursting lungful before he turns and heads back up again.

Jack doesn’t even know what to think about this crazy brilliant idea of Mac’s. He’s grateful for what the kid is doing but he knows that he won’t be able to keep this up for long. Rescue breathing is exhausting and at some point Mac’s going to start getting light headed. He might even pass out and drown himself. Time is against them here. When Mac returns on this pass he mimes opening a door and then touches his wrist again before flashing his fingers in the pattern of one then two then zero. A hundred and twenty seconds. He doesn’t wait for Jack to respond just swims back up and the deafening sound of the door being thrown open echoes down to him.

When Mac returns this time Jack turns his head when he leans in and Mac pulls back, confused. Jack points at him with a stern finger and then at the surface. You breathe.

Mac glares and swims up before he comes back down. He leans in again and this time his lips land on Jack’s and it doesn’t have anything to do with air. He presses in gently and he moves them in a soft sweeping pattern that Jack has long since dreamed to feel, wishes he was warmer and drier so as to feel it better. Jack relaxes into it and feels a sudden full flow of air sneak into his mouth. When he looks again Mac is watching him with an irritated expression before he pinches Jack’s ear and his meaning is clear. Don’t waste time being difficult. He heads upwards again.

Mac returns about a hundred seconds later and after he gives Jack another round, he touches the corner of his eye, touches his chest and then points at Jack. I love you. He lets his hand rest on Jack’s jaw for just a brief moment and then heads back up. On the next round, Jack mimes the same back to him, and the vibrant happiness in Mac’s eyes glow in the green light around them.

Jack doesn’t know how Mac does it for so long. He can only imagine how tired he is, the swimming up and down, breathing for two people. He’s so proud of the strength in his partner. He assumes it has a lot to do with how good of shape Mac is in but more of the credit goes to his sheer determination not to fail. But still, Jack knows that something is going to give sooner or later.

After several more passes of air, while Mac is at the surface, the final nail in the coffin arrives in the form of a jarring hit to the hull by another wave. It rocks the entire plane viciously and without the weight of the previous debris on Jack to keep him pinned, he jerks with the movement and he slides up the jagged metal spike by about four inches. He doesn’t mean to scream but he does and the water rushes into his mouth, filling and burning and consuming all the precious air Mac worked so hard to get him. He glances up to see Mac swimming quickly back down to him, sees the horrifying realization in his eyes but Jack can’t quite seem to find the energy to react.

Mac is in his face, holding his jaw with tight hands, but Jack can’t do anything to respond. The darkness is gathering behind his eyes and around him, pulling him away. The last thing he sees is a few hundred bubbles rushing out of Mac’s mouth as his partner screams his name.

-  
-

He can’t feel anything.

There’s no sound.

There’s no smell.

Jack is distinctly numb all over. 

All he can see is the waves of an ocean around him, a rainy grayness covering a dim horizon he can barely see in the distance. It’s so peaceful, almost hypnotic.

“It’s beautiful isn’t it?” A warm baritone voice says from behind him and when Jack turns, he’s face to face with his father.

But it’s not his father as he last saw him, old, sickly, all white hair and wrinkly laugh lines. This is Jack Dalton Senior as Jack knew him growing up, skin tan by long days in the field with dark hair, body strong and proud. This is the man Jack knew as his mentor and confidant, the North Star of all things good on his moral compass.

“Dad?” Jack whispers and his old man’s smile is bright against the backdrop of the rainy sky around them.

“Hey Junior.”

Jack stares at him for a moment, filled to the brim with joy and relief to see his father. He’s missed him for such a long time and to be seeing him again…

It gives him pause. Why would he be seeing his dad right now? Unless…

“Am I dead?” Jack asks and his dad’s smile fades back a little.

“Not quite.” The senior Dalton answers gently, “look down, son.”

Jack follows his father’s finger as it points down and he rears back in shock at what he sees.

He sees himself prone on his back, on the deck of a coast guard ship. The lower half of his gut is impaled by a metallic bar, and he certainly looks dead if one could judge by his pale skin and lax face. A medical team is doing compressions on his chest, attempting to force air into his water sodden lungs with a hand held air pump. Mac is sitting beside him, sobbing quietly as he watches the med team try to revive him.

Jack watches them for a moment before he looks back to his dad and says quietly. “I’m dying.”

His father nods and rests a light hand on Jack’s shoulder. “You’re standing at death’s door, right now. Up to you whether you walk through the door or not.”

“We get to choose?” Jack asks bewildered, eyes transfixed on the place where Mac sits beside his lifeless body, the younger man’s broken cries echoing up to him.

Jack senior shrugs, unconcerned, “Not everyone gets to, don’t ask, I don’t make the rules ‘round here. The important thing is that you get to choose, son.”

Jack watches Mac for a moment longer before he looks back to his dad. “What should I do?”

“Oh Jack, that’s too important a’thing for me to decide for you. You’ve lived a helluva life down here, kid. Done so much good in the world, helped so many people. Not a soul would blame you for walking away right now. I know how tired you are some days. It would be alright to rest now, if that’s what you want.” Jack senior promises kindly and Jack couldn’t agree more.

He has been tired, so tired he doesn’t know how to keep moving forward some days. Getting a reprieve from all the responsibilities on his shoulders sounds nice. 

Mac’s low wailing cry of his name draws his attention and he can’t help but watch the scene of his dying again. 

“That boy sure does love you.” Jack senior mentions offhand and he can’t help but stare back at his father. Jack remembers that moment in the plane when Mac had pressed his lips against his and then mimed the words ‘I love you’ at him, even there in the cold dark water Jack had felt more alive than ever.

“Yeah he does. And I love him too. Never loved someone so much in all my life.” Jack vows and he feels the truth of what’s right in the world humming along through his chest. “I can’t leave him, dad.”

Jack senior’s answering smile is a knowing one, full of pride. “I know, son. Best get on back then. Don’t keep that boy waitin’.”

Jack reaches forward and hugs his father, so grateful for the acceptance and the love in his words but saddened that he’ll be losing this so quickly. “Thanks, dad. I’ll see you later?”

“Of course. Not too soon though, you hear? I’m proud of you Jack. I love you, my boy.”

“I love you too dad.”

When they part, his father gives him one of those boisterous laughs Jack’s missed most and shoves his shoulder so that he’s hurtling backwards toward his body below.

-

His eyes snap open at the same time a hard gush of water surges up and out of his throat and he’s forced to his side to let his stomach heave the remainder out. He wants to scream for how it pulls on his wound but he can’t, his lungs only care about pulling air in and out, not about sounds of distress.

Voices he doesn’t know surround him, stern but relieved. “We got him back. Radio that chopper and get an ETA!”

He can’t make sense of those words so he closes his eyes and focuses on the feeling of someone holding his hand, the feeling of light drops of rain falling in his face. A whimpering familiar voice is in his ear calling for him. Not just any voice, Mac’s voice. He wants to tell him he hears him, that he’s coming back, but the darkness wins and he falls back again.

-

“No!” Mac’s furious voice says beside him, “I’m going with him!”

“We don’t have time to argue!” Another voice adds, placating but irritated. “Just get in already!”

The steady thump-thump of helicopter blades cutting the air hover around him and Jack feels weightless.

-

When the dark pulls back again, the pain is unbearable.

Something heavy is strapped to his neck and he tries to wrench it away, he can’t breathe with it on, but suddenly someone is behind him and their warm arms are around his chest. Again, Mac’s voice is in his ear. “It’s okay, Jack, I got you. Just breathe with me. In and out. I’m right here.”

Jack wants to thank him but he can’t draw enough air for his voice. He’s moving fast he thinks, the wind is loud outside.

-

An ambulance's siren pulls him back up from the dark and there is a cacophony of urgent voices around him. 

“What do we got?”

“Male, late forties, impaled abdominally in plane crash, through and through lower left quad. Resuscitated at scene by search and rescue from full drowning. BP holding steady at eighty-two over forty-five-“

“Who’s the friend?”

“He wouldn’t let us take him without him.”

“Right let’s get him over in trauma one and call OR right now.”

Jack’s too tired to focus on more than that so he listens instead to Mac’s voice in his ear and enjoys the solidness of Mac’s arms around him, keeping him safe.

“Jack, we made it buddy, you hear me? They’re gonna get you some real help now. I’ll be right here waiting for you to get back.” 

Mac’s voice is pulled away briefly to answer someone who asks for their names.

“Okay, Mac, we’re going to take Jack from you now. You just scoot back a little and we’ll do the rest.”

A feather soft kiss is placed behind Jack’s ear and Mac says just loud enough for Jack to overhear in the noise of the room, “Hang in there for me.”

There’s several sets of hands on him after that, keeping him upright. He wants Mac to come back and talk to him some more. His life wouldn’t mean much if Mac wasn’t talking to him. There’s a loud metallic crash in the room and several voices shouting, but without Mac there to listen to, Jack can’t bring himself to care and falls back into the dark.

-

There’s a whispered beeping somewhere near his head and it’s very quiet. It's quite dark but a bright light somewhere above him is turning his closed eyelids from black to red.

“Did you hear about this one?” A hushed voice says and another answers with a quiet hum. “These guys survived a plane crash out in the Gulf.”

“No shit?”

“Yeah. And get this, the kid who was with this guy, when he saw his friend was shish-kabobed and trapped, the plane taking on water, he stayed with him and did mouth to mouth rescue breathing till the Coast Guard showed up.”

“Wow.”

“For forty minutes.”

“Holy shit.” The voice sounds reverent, “how’d he not pass out?”

“Oh he did, but not till they got here. He was holding his friend upright to keep pressure off the pole here. But as soon as they took him off the gurney he went down like a sack of bricks.”

“Ouch. He gonna be okay?”

“Yeah, Rogers thinks so. Probably just the adrenaline dropped and he collapsed. He’s getting looked at now I think.”

“Well here’s to hoping it wasn’t all for nothing.”

There’s a rush of something warm up his arm and Jack doesn’t get to hear the rest of what they had to say.

-

“So what are you saying?”

“I’m saying, Mr. MacGyver, that the amount of trauma your partner suffered, both without oxygen to the brain during drowning and then again with coding during surgery-“

“Are you telling me he’s brain dead?”

“Mr. MacGyver, we can’t confirm anything at this time but his responses are not what they should be. It’s still early but-“

-

He’s floating in a foggy distance, it tastes like the color blue.

It doesn’t hurt here, which is nice. He wonders vaguely if he might’ve died after all. He feels as numb as he did when he saw his dad and trying to follow that thought to where he saw his dad leads to a blank spot he can’t fill. 

He can’t find his way out of the fog and he wishes he could find the darkness to sink down into again, this place is too cold to stay. He wants out and away.

He’s drifting in the silence when he realizes it’s not completely silent. There’s a voice somewhere just out of reach and it takes some straining but he can make out the softest murmur of words.

“Please wake up…” 

He knows that voice. He can’t quite put a name to it here in the fog but it’s familiar. It’s a warm voice that sounds like coming home.

“You can’t let go, Jack. I got you out.” The voice scolds, angry and sharp like river stones but lonelier than a crow calling in the autumn air. “You told me to leave you to die back there and I said I wouldn’t. I need you, Jack. I could never leave you behind. And there’s nothing I want out there if you’re not with me. You said… You said you loved me. Get back here and prove it…. please?”

-

-

-

The world comes back to Jack slowly and after a moment he realizes three things.

First, he’s in a hospital bed. Second, he’s not dead. And third, being alive hurts.

Breathing in general is the worst, it hurts like a bitch. His lungs and throat burn, his chest aches, his side throbs, and his back tingles with the promise of worse pain if he moves.

But he’s alive.

“Jack.”

And better yet, he’s not alone.

His gaze drifts to his left and finds Mac standing beside him watching him with tear-filled relieved eyes, his chin trembles just a little. Jack draws in a little pull of air to answer and Mac stops him with a soft finger over his own lips.

“Don’t try to talk, you’ll just hurt yourself.” He informs him, sniffling softly as he sits at Jack’s side on the bed and strokes his hand. “I’m just... so happy you’re awake.”

Jack looks Mac over and sees a few butterfly bandages at his hairline from the gash they received in the crash and he notices Mac’s hands are bandaged. He taps Mac’s leg and points at Mac before giving a thumbs up. Mac shakes his head like Jack’s being an idiot and sighs.

“Yeah, Jack, I’m okay. Just worry about yourself for once.”

Jack frowns at the tone of Mac’s voice and his eyes must translate the question for him because Mac wipes at his eyes and sighs.

“I’m fine, I swear. I’m just-“ he makes a frustrated growl under his breath and shrugs. “I don’t know what I am, right now. I’m happy we’re alive. We’re both okay, you got off lucky. We both did. You could’ve...” Mac stops himself, rubs at his eyes again and a soft sob is muffled with his hand. “What if I had lost you?” 

Jack watches a tear that Mac can’t hold back course down his cheek and he reaches up with a slightly shaky hand to thumb it away, leaving his hand to rest by Mac’s jaw. Mac closes his eyes and covers Jack’s hand with his own, relishing in the warmth of it.

Mac sighs and moves so that he can settle himself down into the chair beside Jack’s bedside, leaning forward so that he can pillow his chin on his arms. He doesn’t let go of Jack’s hand though.

“I guess I know how you feel every time I do something crazy now, huh?” Mac asks and Jack smiles at him, and taps the end of his nose and gives him a thumbs up. Mac snickers at that but doesn’t offer any apologies. 

Jack can’t stifle a yawn that sneaks out of him and he flinches when it pulls at all sorts of sore muscles in his chest. Mac winces in sympathy and pats his hand.

“We have a lot to talk about, but we can do all that later. Just rest for now. I’ll be here when you wake up. So will everyone else, Riley and Bozer are flying in tonight to see us because you’re gonna be here a couple days.”

Jack gives a small nod and lets his eyes close, sinking back toward the restful healing sleep he so sorely needs, but before he can slip away he remembers something he needs to say. 

Jack taps Mac’s hand and points at his eye, then his chest, then at Mac.

Mac’s smile is tired but brilliantly real. “I know, Jack. I love you too.”

Jack smiles and sleeps easy, he knows he’s in good hands.

-

The end

-


End file.
